Shutting oneself away!
Some while ago we changed from a full awning to a porch awning. This was partly to 'lighten the load' when putting up or taking down the awning. The loss of space created a crowded effect, so I fitted a patio rail across the front of the awning and we dropped the front panel to drape over the rail during the daytime. Great! More feeling of space, and not so shut off from people when sitting out in the shade. So much so that we have now gone for a full length canopy, with part of the front screened by a windbreak. This will allow some shelter on windy days, and keep the "untidy" corner of the canopy out of sight. And more opportunity for passing the time of day with adjacent/passing campers.
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We don't tend to use an awning so much these days, partly, as you say, to lessen the work on arrival and packing up but we have a full awning and a porch awning. Both have 'balcony' poles which I find useful as, like you, I can drop the fronts down and still have protection and I can see out.
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In recent years (now in our 80's) we have tended to take longer hols at a single site. This led into carrying a little more clutter and, much of this being in the van, made one night stopovers too much trouble. Mainly for our French trips, we want to go back to moving around more, instead of 6 weeks in one place.
As our last car was reaching ten years old, we decided to buy a VW Caravelle a few weeks ago. A little cutting back on clutter, plus having the loading space in the Caravelle, the van is now always in ready for habitation mode.
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Our very first experience (not a club a site) after buying a caravan was to pitch up next to a couple who had literally barricaded themselves in, we both remember it as we felt maybe this wasn't for us, we're with the "I want to be alone brigade." Anyway we got over that and frequently joined up with friends who always took an enormous awning, cue lengthy bickering, hours of pole staring and peg bashing etc. We never got ourselves a big awning and gradually weaned ourselves off smaller ones, with the added help of wind and storms. I just wanted to be ready to go if needed. So now we're down to our wind out M/H canopy and a small windbreak.
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All we use now after years of putting up awnings is a Thule omnistore wind out canopy and sometimes a wind break,which if one of the grandsprogs comes with us allows the fitting of a porch awning under it ,
We have noticed that there are still a lot of "castle keep walls" erected on sites around the outside of awnings that would probably need a password to breech
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Also a canopy user after various porch awnings, but have a side panel as well and this can be fitted on either side dependent upon weather conditions.
Good for a shady spot when that sun is just too much, keep the boots, chairs etc dry, also a clean/dry area before entering the caravan and much easier to use.
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Pitch space rarely allows the excessive 'wall building' on CMC sites. In France, at one site we visit, the fully serviced pitches are large enough to accommodate car, caravan and awning twice over. The best OTT outfit we saw this year was a massive 5th-wheel job with wind-out sides - the maker's logo was "Silverback". Added to this were a number of windbreaks to form a large private 'courtyard'. Occupants were a couple and two dogs.
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We no longer use the awning now the children have stopped coming with us. What has happened is that instead of the 10 ft caravan with four of us we started with, we now have two of us in nearly twice the space and no longer see the point. Our pitch is not our little empire but somewhere to sit out if the weather is decent and hide away if it is not.
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We have a wind out awning (sunshade) on our small camper van but rarely use it in the UK. The beauty of having a small camper van is that the absence of either a car or an awning leave lots of free space on the pitch and it would be a shame to cause a potential hazard for those crossing our pitch or to compromise their view into our van.
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I remember some years ago on the C&CC forum, an irate mother had posted a complaint about her son getting hurt whilst cycling through a pitch. The 'authorised' user of the pitch had put up a clothes line, and it fetched the lad off his bike. If my memory is correct, there were more posts sympathising with the mother and son than with the user of the pitch.
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I spent two glorious weeks in Trevella Park Crantock Cornwall in July, and I was amazed at all these windbreak walls most people had some quite posh looking too, tell me and I don't mean to sound north south devide but is it a northern thing cos the only ones I see down south is on the beach..
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I think they are generally everywhere. On a campsite we visit in France, where the fully serviced (all grass) pitches would take the outfit and awning twice over, we have seen both extremes. Some set up multiple windbreaks to form a sizeable wall (usually Brits), whereas others with just a caravan, with or without an awning, position themselves tight in one corner (sometimes Dutch but usually French), and leave a whole expanse of grass standing idle.
But never judge a book by its cover. Many years ago we arrived for the first time at an adults-only site. Across the way were a couple who seemed to be constantly watching us. Eventually we got talking at the shower block. The lady (Ann) said I knew you'd speak if we looked long enough. They were from Lancashire, we from Leicestershire. We started to spend evenings chatting in each other's awnings over nibbles and wine, and played boules on the grass for a time prior to retiring to the awning. This became a pattern for us to meet up each year at the same site in Cornwall. Sadly, the chap died suddenly, and we lost the most consistent friendship in all our caravanning/campervanning years.
I wonder how many people have acted aloof, as we might have done, and missed the chance of similar enduring friendships?
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Surely - if you wish to shut yourself away then you need only go into your habitation unit and shut the door?
For others, that wish to commune with the world at large, merely sit outside on your sun loungers, be pleasant to all who speak to you and if you click, then arrange communal BBQs etc., you do not have to become buddies for life - merely for that stay, evening only.
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I wasn’t even aware One had an Elf. Power to Him I say👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻😊
Free the Elf👏🏻
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